Tuesday, January 11, 2011

I noticed that I haven't been posting as much the past month or so, but it's not like I haven't been doing anything. I'm still plugging away at getting Tomakan and Neve to the Cata zones (they're L76 and L77, thanks for asking), and I'm continuing to pug my way through instances and BGs.

My posts about foibles in instances have been few and far between because, well, the number of worthy failpugs has dropped dramatically. My speculation is that people are working on all of their toons in the Cata zones, and given the commentary about failpugs in Cata instances, I might not be too far off the mark.

One thing I have noticed is that LFD isn't really random. My instance selections while leveling in the Wrath zones have been waves of a single instance at a time: first Utgarde Keep, then Ahn'kahet, and now Violet Hold. Scattered in between have been occasional forays into Azjol-Nerub, The Nexus, and Drak'Tharon. I'm not sure how LFD determines the criteria for an instance, but I suspect that certain instances are ranked higher than others depending on your level, your gear's iLevel, and your role selection. That role selection is subdivided if you're DPS into ranged vs. melee. Finally, you're put into a pug based on need.

Anyway, I'm still plugging away in mostly abandoned areas of Azeroth. Last week, when I had some off time, I spent a morning and part of the afternoon on Tom, and between leveling mining and questing in Zul'Drak, I think I saw a grand total of a half dozen other toons. The power levelers have long passed through with their new alt combinations, and at least one guildie in Neve's guild has already lapped her and is closing in with a third toon.

I'm now starting to get antsy about making it to the Cata zones and see all of those spoilerific things that I've been avoiding on other people's blogs.

@Vid-- Thanks! I don't recall it taking this long to get to L80 on Q, but I'd have to go back and check.

Speaking of the old man, I got on Q yesterday to cut a few gems for Neve, and it felt... weird. I didn't really need to move him around Dalaran much, but the last time I was on Q, Dal was still pretty busy.

My instance selections while leveling in the Wrath zones have been waves of a single instance at a time.

I noticed that too while levelling through LFD in Wrath; I suspect that it's because players tend to "pool" around certain level ranges. For example there'll always be people keen on jumping into UK as soon as the finder allows it because they are excited to get out of Outland, so you keep getting grouped with them even as your level goes up. Then you finally outlevel it and "jump" into Old Kingdom (which is the closest to the "right" level for you by the time you leave UK behind), where the next "pool" forms and so on.

OMG, you are getting so close! Before you know it, you will be seeing players around again, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse!

And I think you are dead on about the LFD. When I would specifically queue for ToC, I cannot tell you how many groans I got from PuGs. Here they are thinking the LFD system hates them, when really I just wanted Champion Seals for some mounts!